Calling to book a table, make a doctor's appointment or phoning for help when stranded at the side of the road are tasks many people take for granted.
But for the deaf, these simple tasks require expensive equipment or a mediator.
For this reason, the Pedius app was created to help deaf people speak to friends, family and businesses on the phone using voice recognition and real-time speech translation.
When a call is made using the free Android or iOS app, the user types a message on the screen and it will be translated to speech in real time.
By this procedure, the recipient can hear the request or conversation, and their spoken responses are then immediately translated into text.
The application, Pedius, was developed by Italian entrepreneur Lorenzo Di Ciaccio after he heard a story about a deaf man whose car had broken down.
The driver was unable to communicate by phone and was left waiting for hours hoping someone would notice and help him.
Pedius does not require both users to have specific hardware, and all communications and interactions are private.
If the voice transcription is not accurate enough, Pedius automatically shows alternatives, and if it's still not enough, a user can ask the recipient to repeat themselves using the 'R' button.
In addition to this, users can record messages using their own voice by pressing the microphone button.
Pedius was launched in Italy in 2013 and is now available in the UK, US and France. The firm plans to expand further into Europe later this year.
“Being able to make a simple phone call is something we often take for granted, but there are over 70 million people in the world who have profound to severe hearing loss and are unable to use phones,” said Mr Di Ciaccio.